Getting Public Information Out of the Metal File Cabinets

Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY proposed the 2010 Public Online Information Act, which he says is designed to take public information "out of the metal file cabinets and into the sunlight of the Internet." The measure would require each agency to create a searchable catalog of materials it makes publicly available, including where the records can be found, whether the records are available for free or for a fee, and a brief description of the records.

More about the proposed POIA here.

OMLN Partners with NFOIC

The Berkman Center's Online Media Legal Network (OMLN) is partnering with the National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC) to assist with freedom of information lawsuits and to provide online journalists with FOI information and assistance.

The NFOIC received a $2 million, three-year grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to launch the Knight FOI Fund and support open government groups by funding up-front litigation costs, such as filing fees, depositions and initial consultation fees if attorneys are willing to take FOI cases that would otherwise go unfiled.

Read more about the partnership here.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Oregon Attorney General John Kroger has appointed an attorney to be a full-time public records chief who will develop a statewide standard for releasing government documents, and instead of requiring a $25 fee, Kroger has placed a citizens guide to using public records law and the Attorney General's Public Records and Meetings Manual online. These moves signal greater efforts to improved government transparency.

But, at the same time, Kroger has also signaled his office will no longer confirm or deny open investigations on civil matters involving businesses accused of consumer fraud.

For more information, click here.

Federal government Web sites promise more transparency

The White House unveiled two Web initiatives to support President Obama's call for a more transparent government, the Washington Post reported. Data.gov will serve as a depository of raw data from various agencies. WhiteHouse.gov will provide an opportunity for citizens to suggest and discuss new open-government policies. The White House Web site will also feature "Innovation Gallery," which will serve as a showcase of government agencies' efforts to be more transparent and include "a timeline to display open-government milestones as they are reached."

On his first full day in office, President Obama issued his first executive order directing federal officials to come up with ideas for making government information more visible and accessible to the public within 120 days.

Today -- the 120th day since the edict -- the White House is rolling out a host of online initiatives intended to foster more dialogue and collaboration between citizens and bureaucrats.

The launch includes the debut of a site called Data.gov, where agencies will post data that can be culled by Web developers to make new Web and cellphone applications. Also starting today, the WhiteHouse.gov homepage will become a repository for citizen suggestions and discussion regarding new open-government policies.

More here.

Google tool tries to make data mining easy

The recently launched Google Public Data plans to start with U.S. population and unemployment data and add on emissions stats from the EPA, the Washington Post reported. The new tool "is taking data, reformatting it so it's immediately consumable ... so people don't have to go through rows and rows of data." Google says many agencies do not organize their Web sites in ways that can be easily indexed by search engines. Some embed codes into their sites, which makes the information invisible in searches.

Google launched a new search tool yesterday designed to help Web users find public data that is often buried in hard-to-navigate government Web sites.

The tool, called Google Public Data, is the latest in the company's efforts to make information from federal, state and local governments accessible to citizens. It's a goal that many Washington public interest groups and government watchdogs share with President Obama, whose technology advisers are pushing to open up federal data to the public.

The company plans to initially make available U.S. population and unemployment data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, respectively. Other data sets, such as emissions statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency, will roll out in the coming months.

More here.

Fla. launches state-spending Web sites

The state of Florida launched two new Web sites, which track government-agency spending by contractor name, The News-Press (Fla.) reported. A bill in the Legislature could expand this site to include the spending of local governments and legislative leaders. The next step of this budget tracking tool will include the ability to track every check the state writes.

Gov. Charlie Crist and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink Tuesday unveiled what they described as the next generation of Florida's legendary open-government laws, new Web sites that track state spending.

The sites (flgov.com/sunshinespending and myfloridacfo.com/sunshinespending) track government-agency spending by contractor name."

Government in the sunshine is more important than ever, especially during these challenging economic times," Crist said.

More here.

Bill introduced to make online Wash. tax searches possible

A bill introduced in the state Senate would help clear up confusion about Washington's 1,790 taxing districts, Washington Policy Blog reported. The proposed online database would allow citizens to search by address for the types of taxes, tax rates and taxing districts the locations fall under. A tax rate calculator would provide potential taxes (such as property, sales, business, vehicle, etc.) by district.

According to the Washington State Department of Revenue (DOR), as of 2008 there were 1,790 taxing districts in the state whose officials impose various taxes on Washingtonians. Unfortunately for taxpayers, there is no single comprehensive resource available to help individuals and businesses learn which taxing districts and rates they are subject to, and how much officials in each taxing district add to their total tax burden. A typical home, for example, can be located in as many as ten different taxing districts.

To help improve the transparency of state and local taxation, Washington Policy Center proposed last summer the creation of an online searchable database of all tax districts and tax rates in the state. The proposal is modeled after last year’s SB 6818: Promoting transparency in state expenditures, which was unanimously adopted by the legislature and signed into law. SB 6818 was based on WPC's recommendation for the state to adopt a searchable budget website.

More here.

USA Today Unveils Tremendous Records Set

From Poynter's wonderful Al's Morning Meeting:

Until today, hospital death rates were closely guarded secrets, discussed in board rooms but beyond the reach of patients whose lives are on the line. That changed Wednesday morning when USA Today posted on its Web site the government's best estimates of heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia death rates for every U.S. hospital for two years.

Now anyone with access to a computer can directly compare a local hospital with the one across town to see how it stacks up against the biggest medical institutions nationwide. Death rates from heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia are widely viewed as yardsticks of a hospital's overall performance.

The report is here.

Cool Stuff: Quizzing the Candidates on Open Government in WA

Passing along...from this blog...

Earlier this year, the Washington Coalition for Open Government (WCOG) submitted an open government questionnaire to candidates around the state and asked for their position on 10 key government reform issues identified by WCOG. Candidates were asked to take a “yes” or “no” stance on topics including proposals to require taping of executive session of public agencies and stiffen penalties for Open Public Meeting Act violations and destruction of public records.

A summary of the responses submitted by all candidates, plus the individual surveys filled by each one, have been posted on the WCOG Web site at www.washingtoncog.org.

“The Washington Coalition for Open Government is happy to be able to provide this service to our members and to the people of Washington so they will know more about where the candidates stand on government openness, transparency, and accountability,” said Toby Nixon, president of the Coalition. “I hope they will make note of which candidates failed to respond to our survey, and ask those candidates pointed questions about where they really stand on the people’s right to know what their government is doing.”

The Washington Coalition for Open Government is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and defending the people's right to know in matters of public interest and in the conduct of the public's business. Members of the coalition represent a broad range of interests, including the news media, public affairs, law, current and retired public officials, business and labor.

For more information, contact WCOG President Toby Nixon at 206.782.0393 or visit the WCOG Web site at www.washingtoncog.org.

NY Web Records Site Sues Over Data

An Albany-based think tank is suing Kiryas Joel's public school district for ignoring a document request that 730 other districts fulfilled.

The Empire Center for New York State Policy claims Kiryas Joel never responded to six letters since March 31 asking for copies of the contracts for its superintendent and teachers union — the same information it sought from every other New York school district.

The center has since posted the contracts it got and other public records — including a database of salaries for all 263,000 state employees — on a Web site (seethroughny.net) that attracted so many viewers when it went online July 31 that it crashed.

Now, the center is taking legal action against the only three school districts that flouted its request: Kiryas Joel, Uniondale and Mount Markham. Those districts could be liable for the center's legal costs if found to have violated the state Freedom of Information Law.

Kiryas Joel Superintendent Joel Petlin says there's a simple reason he never supplied the records: his office moved on March 1, and he never got the Empire Center's letters.

He said he'd be happy to fulfill the request, although he has no teachers contract to provide. The staff of his tiny school system — which serves fewer than 250 special education students from the Hasidic community — are paid on a salary scale the administration has set, Petlin said.

Kiryas Joel's village government and public school have a shaky record of complying with the public records law. The Times Herald-Record asked both for copies of their payrolls — records that governments and school districts routinely provide — three times last year and got no response.

In addition, village officials have ignored five requests from the newspaper since December 2007 for copies of building permits, Planning Board minutes and code violations. Those records were sought after a mudslide occurred in a construction area.

More here.

Ohio: New Site to Put Records Online

COLUMBUS – The Buckeye Institute today announced its Center for Transparent and Accountable Government. The center, led by former Statehouse reporter Mike Maurer, will collect and post online state and local government budgets, employee contracts, public records policies and other information.

"Transparency and open government crosses ideologies and is equally supported, and equally opposed, by both major political parties," said Maurer. "The Coburn-Obama bill, of which both Senators Barack Obama and John McCain were initial sponsors, requires federal government contracts to be posted at USAspending.gov. Ohioans deserve the same type of transparency from their state and local governments."

The center's first two initiatives include a candidate transparency pledge and an open government "wiki" Web page.

A Pledge for Transparency and Accountability in Government will be distributed to all candidates for elective office, at all levels of government, from townships and school districts to the General Assembly. It asks that candidates acknowledge the importance of Internet availability, the legal basis of transparency in the state and federal constitutions, and the use of practical, current technology, such as searchable databases and relevant cross links.

The pledge is attached to a White Paper on Transparency published as a Buckeye Institute Policy Brief, describing state and private efforts to make budgets, checkbooks, contracts and awards, and a wide array of government data easily accessible. The report is available online at www.buckeyeinstitute.org.

OhioSunshine.org, a publicly editable "wiki" Web site, is available to all citizens and can be edited by local activists across the state. The site is dedicated to open government, and it will allow citizens to monitor how well state and local governments provide information to the public.

"We like to say that there are 11 million pairs of eyes to ensure good government in Ohio," said Maurer. "While many of our government officials deserve credit for working to provide government data the way it must be provided today, over the Internet, the fact is that Ohio is behind its peers in government transparency."

Examples of state governments that are doing a better job than Ohio include the state of Alaska, which has its entire checkbook online, and the state of West Virginia, which has its entire public employee payroll online.

Buckeye Institute President David Hansen said that open, easily available information is essential to good government.

"The legitimacy of Ohio government rests on the consent of the governed, but that consent doesn't mean much when so much of government occurs hidden, or deeply buried," Hansen said. "Twenty-First Century information technology should be applied to draw back the curtain that stands between government and the people."

The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions is a nonpartisan research and educational institute devoted to individual liberty, economic freedom, personal responsibility and limited government in Ohio.

A Sign of the Future: FOI Requests Go Social Nets...

A new Web site has been launched to root out some of the lesser known documentation of Salem County government.

Launched by the Salem County Watchdog Association, the site provides archived and current documents secured through open public records requests.

The brainchild of Shirlee Manahan, www.salemcountywatchdog.org is a cyber-library providing information such as who among employees has a county-issued cell phone or vehicle, along with news of the day and budgetary information.

"This is a non-partisan, non-political Web site. I made a simple inquiry for public records in 2006 and was told no," said Manahan, a Pennsville resident. "The Web site was designed to save citizens the time, delay and cost of making individual requests for documents."

Manahan believed strongly that her denial was a violation of the Open Public Records Act and took her case to the Government Records Council.

More here.

Here is a nice little nugget on FOI 2.0

From a column on Web 2.0:

Web 2.0 impacts government in many ways. One is simply whistle-blowing –– take IllegalSigns.ca, the clever Toronto "mashup" of government data and Google mapping. It pinpoints the location of illegal billboards and holds city government accountable to remove them.

In Los Angeles, academics and neighborhood activists are collaborating to apply city data to identify blocks with suspiciously high numbers of code violations and property tax delinquencies. The idea: Use "real-time" (current) data to pinpoint problem areas before they escalate.

Plus, CrimeReports.com is trying to get police departments nationwide to show and renew daily data on criminal activity by precise street location. A scattering of cities have agreed, among them our nation's capital. (You can test the system yourself –– enter a well-known address such as 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C.).

There's a fascinating twist to the Web 2.0 story –– its lead city is America's often-maligned national capital. Stephenson argues convincingly that "Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty and his chief technology officer, Vivek Kundra, are this country's hands-down leaders on use of data feeds and data visualization."

Why? I asked Kundra. "There's very little government does that needs to be locked up, sealed, behind closed doors," he replied. Recalling his wonder on coming to America at age 11 (he'd been born in India, raised in Tanzania), Kundra talks with excitement of government focused on serving citizens.

More here.

Pennsylvania Contracts Coming Online

In Pennsylvania, the sunshine just keeps on coming these days...

The state Department of Community and Economic Development has posted more than 400 grants and contracts on the Department of Treasury's new contract database as required by the state's new Right-to-Know Law. But as of Wednesday only a few dozen grants had been posted on the website by other state agencies. And at least five agencies have not posted any at all.

Read more here.

Very cool...

The Sunlight Foundation continues to push the envelope in thinking up new ways to harness the Internet for the public good. Their latest tool: Public Markup.

After preparing and drafting a comprehensive piece of legislation, Sunlight decided that public input and scrutiny would refine the bill and improve its chances of garnering lawmakers' support. Rather than immediately looking for legislators who might sponsor the bill, Sunlight, therefore, created PublicMarkup.org as a place to post the bill, and to allow you to comment on and suggest edits to the substance of the legislation.

This project is not intended to be the ultimate technical solution to the challenge of drafting legislation online, but an experiment in online collaboration. By collecting legislation, summaries, resources and commentary in a single linkable location, PublicMarkup.org provides a simple, blog-like framework for soliciting feedback on this legislation.

In addition to drawing on bills that have already been introduced, several provisions of the Transparency in Government Act of 2008 are the result of the collaborative work of the Open House Project.